I recently went to one of my 7 year old niece’s lacrosse games to support and cheer on the team. As with most kid’s sporting events at half time and at the end of the game, drinks and snackswere provided to all of the exhausted players to help replenish their energy. As I was sitting on the side-lines watching the snacks being handed out, I noticed that a snack-size trail mix was the snack of the day which included peanuts and M&Ms. I was a little surprised and hoped that the coach checked to make sure all of the team players did not have any kind of food allergies. I then wondered if anyone on the opposing team, who were sitting relatively close, had any food allergies and how peanuts being passed around could potentially cause an issue. Something to think about when you are signing your little one up for their next sports team and food allergies are apart of your life!
Typically the parents take turns providing snacks to all the team players at each game. If your child has a food allergy, a simple solution would be to bring your own allergy-friendly snacks for your child. However, in an effort to help your child feel included and not an outsider, I thought of some other ideas that might help:
- Coordinate with the other parents to make sure when it’s their turn to bring the snacks, they choose snacks that are allergy-friendly.
- Make a list of allergy-friendly snack ideas to distribute to the parents on the team and ask if they could only bring snacks from the list.
- Check out what the opposing team has brought for snacks before the game especially if your child is playing a contact sport.
- As always, be prepared for a back-up plan and carry a few allergy-friendly snacks with you. Since a popular drink to provide is juice boxes, Neocate Splash would be a perfect replacement to bring.
Any other ideas that you would like to share?
– Sarah O’Brien
